


It's The Least I Can Do

by colazitron



Category: One Direction
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-25
Updated: 2012-08-25
Packaged: 2017-11-26 11:34:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/650090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colazitron/pseuds/colazitron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eleanor is not immediately charmed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's The Least I Can Do

**It's The Least I Can Do**

 

Louis’s the most hands on affectionate person she’s ever met and at first, admittedly, she finds it a little weird. At first she finds everything about him a little weird, actually. She’s sort of known Harry for a while now, if only tangentially (he’s a friend of a friend) and it was weird enough seeing him on telly and thinking “wait, isn’t that...?” and finding out that, yep, it is. She follows One Direction on The X-Factor then and votes for them every weekend because she likes Harry well enough, finds Rebecca boring, Cher too brash and thinks Matt Cardle’s probably gonna win, but not make it outside the show’s format (he’s boring too). She has nothing against the other contestants, but, well, she feels sort of obligated, a bit, to vote for Harry and his friends. And maybe she thinks Zayn’s sort of fit, with his ridiculously fake “whatever” attitude and his ridiculously long eyelashes. It’s just a little appreciation of a bloke on telly. Everyone’s doing it.

Then X-Factor ends and they don’t win or come in second (which she thinks is a shame; they’d started to get better too) but Cardle does (called it) and, to be honest, she forgets about them. She randomly meets Harry again a few weeks later at a party of their mutual friend’s. He’s still charming and sweet as ever and they spend a while chatting about what it’s actually like to be on TV. He tells her about going on tour and recording music and moving to London later that year and still seems honestly interested in her stories about uni. She cheekily invites herself to his flat to ‘water his plants’ and he laughs and says she’s welcome to. She meant it as a joke, but he seems to mean it and she’s honestly a bit surprised. They don’t know each other that well. Harry asks for her number to keep in touch and she flounders and tells him she’s flattered, but not interested, really. He laughs again and promises it’s really just because he thinks they could be mates.

Turns out they can.

Lisa (their mutual friend) and she end up going to the London show at the beginning of April and since the boys actually have a day off then, they meet up with Harry for dinner. Harry brings Louis and then proceeds to chat almost exclusively to Lisa for the entire evening, which is just plain rude. Louis doesn’t know Lisa or her and Harry sort of leaves him hanging. Not that Louis Tomlinson needs help making conversation, because, wow, that boy can talk and, seriously, she’s a bit overwhelmed. Maybe even freaked out, but someone has to talk to him and she can’t just be rude and ignore him. Towards the end of the night, when they’re strolling back to their hotel, Louis seems to catch on to her discomfort. He stops talking suddenly and gives her a gentle smile. His eyes crinkle and his cheeks pop and, wow, how much does a 19 year old boy have to laugh to have laugh lines?

“You didn’t have to try quite so hard,” he says. “But thank you, anyway. I’m sorry if I was too ...much.”

“Oh, no. It’s alright,” she says even though she’s sort of glad that they’re almost at their hotel and the night’s done. That doesn’t mean he’s not a nice guy though and why would she be rude? He laughs like he can hear her thoughts.

“I didn’t know Harry had a thing for Lisa, though. He could’ve just asked her out,” she says, because tonight doesn’t really make sense to her.

“I don’t think he does,” Louis says and fiddles with his fringe before sticking his hand out for her to shake. It’s a bit awkward but how do you say goodbye to someone you’ve only just met? So she shakes it and laughs to herself and lets Harry pull her into a brief hug. Lisa bumps into her with a grin like it means something and they watch the boys walk away. Louis looks back over his shoulder and ducks his head quickly when he catches her gaze and suddenly she gets it.

“Oh, you didn’t!”

“What? He’s fit! And a sweetheart!”

“He’s really.... loud,” Eleanor says. Lisa rolls her eyes at her and mumbles something that she doesn’t understand but drops it. They don’t bring it up again and Eleanor files it away as a mildly amusing anecdote. Harry calls to apologise a few days later and makes it extra clear that Louis had nothing to do with the inception or execution of that plan and to please not be mad at him. Eleanor laughs it off and asks him to please ask her first if he ever plans on setting her up with one of his mates again. And then, for some reason, the last few moments with Louis, his soft smile and the way he’d looked back at her over his shoulder just stick in her mind and she can’t seem to stop thinking about him. It. Him. Whatever.

Because, yeah, he was loud and it did freak her out a little but she just wasn’t expecting it. And actually, looking back on it, he was kind of sweet too. And funny, sort of. She probably would’ve laughed at most of his jokes if she’d let herself relax a bit more.

She hates looking back and making boys out to be better than they were though and shakes the thoughts off whenever they happen. She should learn to trust her gut. Just because a boy shows a bit of interest in her doesn’t mean she needs to like him. She didn’t and that’s fine. That’s it. She’s not gonna be hung up about this. There’s a summer to look forward to.

What she really doesn’t expect is to run into him at V Festival. They catch each other’s eye over a stretch of grass and it’s close enough to recognise each other and make walking over no big deal and far enough for Eleanor to debate just running off. She doesn’t, but while she walks over, all the reasons why this is going to be so terribly awkward are running through her mind. He tilts his head at her and waits for her to come to him.

“Hi, there,” he says, all smile and pointy (and strangely alluring) teeth.

“I didn’t know you’d be here,” she says instead of the “hi” she intended.

“I promise I’m not stalking you.” He lifts a hand like he’s swearing an oath and makes the most obnoxiously solemn expression. She laughs before she catches herself.

“Listen, have you had lunch yet?” he says then. “My treat, if you want. I promise not to talk as much as last time.”

“Um, yeah. Okay,” she says and definitely thinks about free food and not the way his shirt hangs off his shoulders.

“So, how have you been?”

“Good, yeah, thanks. Uni, you know. Or not, I guess.”

“No, I wouldn’t. Is it very different from college?”

“The classes are, yeah, and the whole system. Like, no one really gives a shit if you don’t show up or don’t do your work, they just fail you.”

“Sounds lovely.”

“Oh, no, it is, actually. I’m really glad I’m doing it. Like, a lot of my friends just went straight into working and they all ask me why I’m bothering to do more studying and bothering with tuition fees and all, but, well. I really like my subject and I actually sometimes catch myself almost liking studying.”

She doesn’t know why she’s telling him all this and why she intones it like she’s imparting some sort of special knowledge to him, but he laughs and winks.

“Your secret’s safe with me, I promise.”

He gestures for her to go first when they reach the burger van and looks at her like he’s impressed when she gives in to her craving for red meat and orders what they call “The Heartbreaker” and a side of onion rings. He gets something barbecue-y and smoky himself and a large order of chips as well as milkshakes for both of them. She’s pretty sure she won’t be able to finish everything but it all sounds delicious, so she goes along with it. People around them are starting to look at them a bit calculatingly, so he throws an arm around her - to ward off suspicion, she thinks - and steers her a bit away from the crowd, pretending he doesn’t notice. She doesn’t really fancy seeing her face on gossip websites, so she follows him gladly until they sit down underneath a tree and start on their feast. They eat their burgers mostly in silence, which she thinks is only partly down to awkwardness and mostly because these burgers are amazingly delicious.

When Louis’s halfway through his chips he suddenly whips off his shirt and Eleanor can’t help staring, more than just a little surprised because what the hell brought that on? (And also, wow, that is just so not fair. He doesn’t really expect her not to notice his pecs and abs and arms - Jesus, how had she not seen those before - right?) He doesn’t even look at her though so she’s pretty sure he’s not doing it for her benefit and when he balls the t-shirt up and lays back onto the ground, shoving it under his head, she thinks, oh, of course. He reaches for another chip and smiles at her when he catches her still looking at him. (Hopefully not still with the obvious ogling eyes.)

“That’s dangerous, you know?” she says, nodding at the chip he’s eating.

“I’m not a child.”

No two minutes later he has to sit up, coughing, because he choked on a piece of chip. She doesn’t say “I told you so”, but she does raise an eyebrow and grin smugly at him. He doesn’t really seem bothered though and just lies back down. Some people just refuse to learn. Their conversation picks back up again and this time around it’s easy. He’s not as talkative as last time and she starts to wonder if his brash personality is a bit of a shield for him. She supposes with all those spot lights and cameras trained on him, he’d need one. When he’s not looking she steals some of his chips and pretends it wasn’t her when his brow furrows in confusion. He steals some of her onion rings back and she pulls a face when he washes them down with his vanilla milkshake. That has got to be disgusting.

The sun’s already quite a bit lower in the sky when they’re done and their conversation peters out.

“So, which stage are you going back to?”

“Oh, I was thinking about the arena stage. I wanna check out The Wanted.”

The face he pulls is absolutely worth it and she bursts out into giggles at his obvious disdain.

“Oh my god, your face!”

“Why, Eleanor, that was a horribly mean trick to play.”

He’s grinning at her though, so she doesn’t buy into his upset tone or exaggerated pout for a second.

“Actually I wanted to go check out Emma’s Imagination later.”

“I have no idea who that is.”

“Me either, but sounds fun, yeah?”

“Yeah. Mind if I tag along?” He looks at her with obvious hope and to her relief she finds it’s not just guilt that makes her want to invite him along. It’s not guilt at all, actually. (It’s probably something to do with his chest though, because now that she’s seen it, she can see it through his shirt and she just wants to lean into it and also do other less PG-rated things to and with it.)

“Be my guest.”

He grins at her and later, in the crowd, takes her hand. She smiles at him a little shyly but his smile back is genuine and warm and even if she has no idea where this is going to go, if anywhere at all, she really wants to find out.

 

 

(The handholding ends up on Sugarscape and their first kiss tastes like burgers and onion rings.

In the bigger picture it ends up leading to twitter hate and stress and a constant ache from missing him. But it also leads to Paris and Nice and the US. It leads to constantly having to reassure herself and far too many angry rants about the state of humanity. But also to gaining a great friend in Danielle and an absurdly sweet and doting boyfriend in Louis. It leads to the most awkward talk she’s ever had with a boyfriend’s mate and Harry laughing his head off at her but also his steadfast support of them and - alright - a few tears when he tells her how glad he is that she makes Louis so happy.

Mostly it leads to something that feels frighteningly real, with all its ups and downs. It leads to her loving Louis and him loving her in return and that’s really all there is to it, in the end.)

**The End**


End file.
